A critical review of local and world news. This blog originally commented on the Moncton Times and Transcript but has enlarged its scope.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

June 23: Dum-dee-dum, no news today.

This post, sent to me from a reader, is the only one I have read on the European Union that makes sense. It is, like the trade treaties we're signing, an effort made by the wealthy, largely in the U.S., to override democracy, and to put themselves in charge.

It's a part of the revolution against nations and against democracy that I have mentioned many times. (This is a long item; but stay with it.)

https://professorwerner.wordpress.com/2016/06/21/eu-basics-your-guide-to-the-uk-referendum-on-eu-membership/
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Sometimes, the CBC annoys me. Lately, it's been an opinion piece by a journalist that the U.S. Republican party is no longer the party of Abraham Lincoln. The reality is that Lincoln as the freer of slaves is one of the many myths of history that American believe of themselves and their values.

Lincoln was opposed to freeing the slaves. He didn't to to war to free slaves in the first place. He went to war because the South wanted to break away - and any such move would seriously weaken the U.S.

The South lived on cotton. It needed free trade to get agricultural machinery as cheaply as possible from overseas - mostly Britain. But the north was industrializing. It needed tariffs on imports to protect its factories from competition. And the industrial north, by the time of LIncoln, had become more politically powerful than the agricultural south. That's why the civil war was fought. When one of his generals, early in the war, freed slaves, Lincoln tore a strip off him. For reasons I don't know, he changed his mind late in the war. But, as the subsequent history of the North shows, it was obviously not because the North wanted freedom and equality for Africans.
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The front page headline is that New Brunswick industry is furious that the provincial government did not consult it on expanding the Canadian Pension Plan. Actually, it didn't consult me, either. Or the clergy of New Brunswick. Or fishermen. Or teachers.

Even more actually, we do not elect governments to consult anybody. We elect them to govern according to the principles they get elected on. If they want a general consultaion with the public, all of us, I suppose that's okay. (The problem is that is only used to buy delay for governments when they're buying time to okay things like fracking.)

Admittedly, we're handicapped in electing them on their principles because the two, leading parties don't seem to have any.

But a special interest group, like business, has no right to demand it be consulted on legislation. A government is elected by all of us to serve all of us. New Brunswick's business community should be spanked and sent home.

Anyway, I don't believe the whole business community of New Brunswick was ignored. There are a few people in this province who just have to blow a whistle, and the Brian Gallants will come running and wagging their tails.

The rest of section A news is the usual trivia, only more so.

I have attended more graduations in my lifetime than I care to remember. All speakers give pretty much the same, safe (and boring speeches). Today, a whole page is devoted to them.
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The editorial writer really has nothing to say, but fills a space, anyway.

Norbert is still ranting about the education report. But he still misses the point. He is for example, indignant whent the report says that supportive learning must occur "starting at birth". His response to that is that until New Brunswick can solve its illiteracy, it's poverty, it's addiction and other social problems, learning from birth is a hopeless pipe dream.( By the way, Norb, the word it's used to signify possession is wrong.)

We can't solve education until we solve illiteracy? Norbert, illiteracy, social problems addictions, poverty are the key problems that have to addressed. They are not separate from education. They are not different problems. They are all part of the same problem.

Our children move around in a daze because we wander around in a daze. And most of the reason we wander in a daze is because the irving press encourages that, and because we all are the children of generations which kept themselves ignorant in order to conform and to be accepted by the provincial bosses.
No education report is likely to solve that. It's not the system that's wrong. It's us.
Rod Allen's commentary isn't a commentary, and it's a useless, overwritten waste of time. That's the sort of thing that keeps New Brunswick in the education toilet.
The Ombudswoman's column is a good read. But it's not really a commentary. She should have her own space.

Alec Bruce argues for a think tank to plan New Brunswick's economic future. It would be something like AIMS.

If it were anything like AIMS, it would be a body blow. That last thing we need is another bunch of propagandists pumping out 'studies' to please the wealthy.
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Canada&World is, as always, an information desert. The lead story is that Ottawa has made a list of people against and people for the Energy East pipeline. Those on the list will be invited to be interveners in the discussion of the pipeline. How very democratic! (You will be allowed to speak - but only if the government approves of you.)

Anyway, it doesn't matter. This isn't consultation. It's almost certainly cover for a decision the government has long since made.

Apparently, nothing much is happening in the rest of the world.
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The Guardian has this series of photos of the sharp division between blacks and whites in South Africa. Some commentators say this just shows the separation between rich and poor. I'm not sure which it is - and I'm not sure it matters. One group lives very differently from the other. It might be interesting to see an aeriel photo of Moncton.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2016/jun/23/south-africa-divided-cities-apartheid-photographed-drone
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In these terrible times of unemployment and low wages, it's a blessing to see that the super-rich around the world are getting still richer. The sour note is that the super-rich of China and Japan and the Pacific region now outnumber the super-rich of the U.S., and they're growing faster. We may have to bomb them.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/23/china-japan-super-rich-asia-pacific-north-america-wealth
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I've found The Guardian reporting and opinion on the vote regarding the European Union is very one-sided, and the editor has been championing the no side. I have never understood why newspapers have editorials. Their expertise, if any, is about setting up a newspaper. They have no special insights into politics, the economy, or foreign affairs.
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The next one comes from a Syrian newspaper. But it's quite credible. We already know the U.S. does not want to see ISIS defeated. Russia does. The fighting in Syria is not about religion of any sort. The fight is about which capitalists will control middle east oil. American capitalists want Assad destroyed, not ISIS.

Y 'see, irving press? Something is happening in the rest of the world.
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I'm not sure this story is right when it refers to a "demographic time bomb" of relations between European Jews and Arab Jews. But there has been a dislike between the two groups from the start. And I've seen that antagonism among immigrants to Canada from both groups.

Netanyahu and his predecessors have been working to create - not a Jewish state, but a European Jewish state. Therefore, the Arab Jews, who are the descendants of the Jews of ancient Israel, don't really fit in. The Israeli government, dominated by European Jews. has been taking a racist approach to the 'real' Jews.
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There have been stories lately that Israel has been stealing Palestinian water. Now, it has taken a really, ugly turn.

The U.S. has a profound interest, especially politically, in supporting Israel. But making almost all that support in the form of weaponry, and looking only at military solutions, the U.S. is doing no favour for Israel - or for the rest of the world.
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And, on the British referendum on the EU, I think this writer is quite right in his criticism of The Guardian.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44942.htm
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The following is a bit overstated. Suggesting that China is a democracy or a special sort of one is, I think, over the top. But there's a lot of truth, too, in this interview.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44945.htm
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This story is obviously untrue. We know that oil pipelines never leak.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/california-oil-spill-30000-gallons-crude-oil-leaked-ventura-county
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I was astonished to read this about the number of refugees in this world. There must be something we can do about this. Maybe we can send them discarded hymn books so they can sing "Onward Christian Soldiers".

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/06/22/un-agency-reports-65-million-people-are-refugees-worldwide/
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In South America, many countries routinely use their soldiers to kill activists, environmentalists, all that trash. They do so, and have done so, for many, many years with the full knowledge and cooperation of the U.S. government. And their targets are people who interfere with the profits and abuses of American (and Canadian) big business in South America. Here's a story about it.

https://theintercept.com/2016/06/23/state-department-turns-blind-eye-to-evidence-of-honduran-militarys-activist-kill-list/
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See, irving press? There is lots of important, foreign news in the world every day, news even more important than "Lac-Megantic says it won't pursue legal action against Canadian Pacific". ( This relates to an explosion that killed 49 people.)
Incidentally, wasn't the name Irving connected with that incident? And weren't there questions about false labelling of the cargo of that train? And weren't there comments on the unwisdom of sending that train on a long trip with its dangerous cargo - and with only one person on it? And doesn't that all suggest a rather casual approach to public safety?

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About Me

born into poverty in Montreal. (1933 was a bad year to be born.) Kicked out of school in grade 11. Became factory hand, office boy.
Did a general BA, mostly at night at Sir George Williams University, and partly while a youth worker for YMCA, camps, etc. Then teacher training at McGill.
Taught gradea 7 to 11 for six years. Loved it.
Quit to do MA at Acadia, then PhD (History) at Queen's.
Taught history three years at UPEI, then some 35 years at Concordia U in Montreal.
Loved the teaching. Thought the profs had more pompous and useless asses among then than is really desirable outside a zoo.
work experience:
factory, office,social group work, office,camp director, teacher.
Radio - c. 3000 broadcasts, mostly current events.
TV - many hundred appearances, mostly commentaries.
Film - some writing, advising, voice-overs.
Writing - no count, some hundreds. Some academic, but mostly for popular market, and ranging from short stories to stories to newspaper and magazine columns to history books.
professional speaker - close to 2000.
Awards for the above? yep